ISPD Global Updates e-Newsletter

The ISPD monthly e-newsletter, Global Updates, is distributed to ISPD members and affiliates. Through the ISPD Federation network, the newsletter also is disseminated to members of national societies in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.

October - November 2018 Issue

Issue 5, 2018

President's Message, Louise Wilkins-Haug, MD, PhD

Welcome to the October-November edition of Global Updates. I am honored to be the new ISPD president and will take this opportunity to reflect with you on the Society’s accomplishments in the last few years. Under the leadership of Igna Van den Veyver, ISPD expanded global outreach providing local co-sponsored courses with societies in China, Taiwan, and later this month, Mexico. In the United States, we increased our presence as educators of genetic fundamentals and their relevance to fetal care at courses during the American College of Medical Genetics and the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine meetings.

With the advent of efficient technologies for the isolation and analysis of rare cells of any kind, fetal cells circulating in maternal blood are again attracting attention for their potential in noninvasive prenatal testing/diagnosis.

Chromosomal mosaicism represents one of the main interpretative dilemmas not only in prenatal diagnosis but also in pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) performed on trophoectoderm. Recent studies have demonstrated that comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) of all 24 chromosomes may detect a chromosomal mosaicism in up to 21% of the screened embryos.1 Such results are a troubling source of uncertainty in decision-making regarding embryo transfer.

Created in 2018, the ISPD Pioneer in Prenatal Diagnosis and Therapy Award is the highest recognition given by the Society to a professional for outstanding contributions to the practice and profession of prenatal diagnosis and therapy. The recipient of the award will give a special lecture at the annual ISPD International Conference and be recognized on the ISPD website and in the Global Updates newsletter. ISPD members are invited to submit nominations.

Topics will include clinical genetics, fetal imaging, fetal therapy and more. This educational opportunity will offer a half-day of preconference courses on Sunday, 8 September 2019, followed by conference sessions, Sunday–Wednesday, 8–11 September 2019.

New in 2019: The conference will begin with just a half-day of courses on Sunday, and the opening plenary will follow on Sunday afternoon!

Plenary sessions, debates, concurrent sessions and posters will explore the latest controversies and hot topics in the field and will feature invited speakers as well as peer-reviewed abstract presentations.

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